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The last hours are nigh! Here is another chance! Open letter to Ndi-Anambra
By Sunny Igboanugo
Today, November 6, 2025, the campaigns end for all the political parties that will participate in the governorship election, scheduled for Saturday. These parties have put their messages out and now it is decision time. That decision is in your hands. The fate of Anambra is firmly in your hands. How do you go?
But as you ruminate on what you have heard these past few weeks and months it is apposite to pause, take a deep breath and look at the issues clearly. You must reflect on how the journey started, where you were yesterday, where you are today and where you are likely to be tomorrow, given the variables before you. Take time to look at all sides of the coin.
Four years ago, faced with the same setting you donated your votes to Charles Chukwuma Soludo. You didn’t make that choice in a vacuum against a set of agreements. Now rev your minds and recall the key issues against which you took that vital position and ponder on them. I’ll help you.
Security: Were you not promised that thenceforth, you were going to sleep with both eyes closed? Are you doing so today?
Lest we forget: In December 2024, Reverend Father Emmanuel Obimma, the outspoken Catholic cleric, popularly known as Ebubemuonso declared Charles Chukwuma Soludo as possessed of a reprobate spirit. Please, google what that expression means. I’ve just done and what I found are not palatable at all. Now, why would a clergyman, no less a Catholic cleric, known for reticence and measured approach go that far to use such an extreme phrase to capture the persona of the governor?
The answers are not farfetched. At the time Ebubemuonso spoke, he was reflecting on the parlous state of security in the state, occasioned by the massive carnage, kidnappings and other forms of high crimes and the apparent insensitivity, if not the complicity of the government of Soludo towards tackling it.
In fact, at that time, one of the brother-priests of the vocal cleric, who just returned to Nigeria from the US, was undergoing a testy time in the hands of kidnappers who abducted him at a filling station, where he had packed to buy petrol.
Just as the wincing of the abducted priest was reverberating across the state and beyond, news again broke of another high-profile case – the seizure of Justice Azuka, member representing Onitsha North 1 constituency at the Anambra State House of Assembly, with the government, still, paying scant heed to the development.
Obimma’s heightened frustration was therefore not only obvious, but understandable. He also not only spoke out, but loudly and clearly. Against the backdrop of his palpably lacerating comments, the government was finally roused to action from its hitherto slumbering mode.
The result, after unleashing a horde of attack dogs against the priest and the few other compatriots, who cared to speak out, was the birthing of Operation Udogachi, what it termed the Anambra Homeland Security Laws, under which the now dreaded Agunechemba outfit currently operates.
But compatriots, what is the result? Is Anambra State safer today, even with the frenzy and audacious commentaries that flowed ceaselessly from the government? I leave you to answer. But before you do, consider the fate of that lawmaker. Yes! What has happened to those people you were told were the culprits in his abduction and subsequent murder?
Yes! Azuka’s remains were later recovered at the foot of the Second Niger Bridge, Onitsha, several weeks later in February – meaning that he was actually in the confinement of his assailants for a long time without rescue. Yes! A lot of fever was generated by the news of the arrest of the abductors. But how has it ended? The matter, as we say here in Nigeria, has entered voicemail.
Indeed, the last I heard of that case was that some of the said culprits escaped from police custody. Now, you needed hear the circumstances under which they were said to have made good their escape. Even a complete retard – an irredeemable imbecile or Mongolian idiot, would be bemused with their incredulous tale.
But let us assume, though difficult to believe that this official side of this sordid story, is credible, have you heard anything else about the other culprits. Shouldn’t their trial have been concluded before now in court and their fate decided? Has Azuka gotten any form of justice.
Now, I ask, my dear compatriots, is this the government you’re going to endorse on Saturday? Do you not smell a rat? Is it not obvious that something is amiss? Can you trust this government? You must consider the answers to these questions. It is not only imperative; you have a right to ask them as well as provide the answers. Yes! It is your right!
Economy:
Lest we forget: By this time four years ago, you were told that in four years, Anambra would be transformed into the Dubai-Taiwan of Africa. Has that happened? Is there any part of Anambra State that resembles Abuja, Accra or even Lome, not to talk about Dubai or Taiwan? Is there any likelihood that in the next 50 years at the pace of development any part of Anambra would look a fraction of Dubai? Aren’t you smelling deceit? Senator Natasha’s Airport antics and the theatre of distraction
Today, having failed woefully to deliver, they have tactfully changed the narrative. They now tell you that they are building the FOUNDATION. Foundation? Is it in the Uga-Amawbia Road – that unending project that is already undergoing patches and rehabilitation in many areas even before it is concluded?
Compatriots, take a drive through major streets in Awka, Nnewi, Onitsha and other major places in Anambra to understand the psychology and philosophy of the Soludo government. It’ll explain the obvious panic mode that you see today around Soludo and his officials. You’ll begin to realise the reason for you to apply your votes wisely on Saturday.
Ask yourself, what would make a government go into the frenzy of knocking down people’s buildings, and business places including INNOSON Motors Showroom on the pretence of dualising their road, only to engage in the horse and buggy pace the project has witnessed?
You must have heard about the Anyamelum hospital saga, where your dear governor, claimed to have commissioned the “first-ever General Hospital. Lacing it with salt and pepper, our dear Charlie Nwa Mgbafor regaled his audience with the seducing tale of how he not only personally visited the patients upon whom four surgeries were performed “in one day, free of charge,” but gave them “something” for their transportation back home?
Didn’t you hear how this tale was busted no sooner thereafter with video evidence that your governor lied and that the hospital was still in fact uncompleted, let alone having the more than 200 patients and the 65 staff the governor claimed? How does that resonate with you.
Compatriots! Did you also miss the drama of communities donating money to his campaigns? How much did you contribute in the N250 million your community contributed in aide of support for him to return as governor. My Ogidi compatriots, how much did you donate? Was it to thank the governor for abandoning your community that was almost swallowed by flood recently.
To you students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, you were said to have also donated from your savings to “encourage” your governor and to thank him. It was your gesture of gratitude that he has refused to grant you bursary award or any form of financial relief.
Welfare:
Lest we forget: Compatriots, are you aware that Anambra is among the very few states in Nigeria that is not paying minimum wage. What do you say to a professor who knows the difference between the quality of money as against the quantity of money posting such a dismal outing?
Ndi-Anambra, I do not wish this letter to be too long. So, let me stop here. But before then, you may have heard your governor suggest that only first-class brains in terms of education are fit to govern you. He readily cites Nnamdi Azikiwe, Odumegwu Ojukwu, Akwaeke Abyssinia Nwafor Orizu, Chinua Achebe and the rest. But let me ask which of these great sons of the land has he mimicked in terms of courage and character.
Zik, it was who confronted the white man and brought independence to Nigeria. Ojukwu, for three good years commanded an army which withstood the whole world – Nigeria, Egypt, United Kingdom, United States and even Russia, who either took direct part in the attempt to annihilate his people or provided deadly weapons to carry out the blitzkrieg that became their lot under the Biafran effort.
What about Nwafor Orizu? Please read up his historic courage as Senate President during the January 1966 coup saga. Now, were you not here when twice, Chinua Achebe threw the national honours awarded him by the Federal Government to their faces? Could this be said of your governor?
If high education is all it takes to be in governance why should the most arguably educated and endowed governor be trembling before a President whose own certificates have remained a subject of controversy and who has not shown publicly proof of primary school education, let alone other levels such attainments, simply because you rely on him for your second term. Where is the courage – the character of Zik, Ikemba and Ugobelunenuoji?
Yes! Our dear governor is a Professor of Economics – of world renown at that – consulting for the highest global institutions. But where has that led us? How better is he head-on with those he claimed to be illiterates and should never be allowed near governance. Has he discharged himself in anyway to suggest his best-brain education?
If yes, in what way? Is it in awarding road contracts? Even a confirmed retard could put pen on paper to award contracts for roads and other projects – not to talk of those that have managed their own businesses, employed labour and empowered people therefrom. So, where does the education bragging rights derive? Wherein lies the prestige of high education when all we see is the crudest form of government business.
Would Zik, et al, condone the breaking of people’s spines with aka-odo or engage in market-women altercations such as we have witnessed today? Would Achebe be silent after the NYSC lady was stripped to her birthday suit? Ponder on this, my people. You have more than 72 hours to do so.
As you approach the polling booth to cast your votes, ask yourself, where are the Ocha Brigade men that slaughtered four people in Onitsha, including a pregnant woman? What has happened to the culprits that killed the Owelle Ezukala three and other victims of trigger-happy state-sponsored actors? Where are those who killed Okechukwu Akanaeme? How come nobody has heard about the ruffians that stripped the NYSC lady?
Since Dubai-Taiwan is no longer feasible or possible, the next question is what next? What will be the fate of Anambra in the hands of Soludo, four years on if you donate that vote to him? Would you risk it? Think about it!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo – The Tiny Voice!
Hours after Justice Mohammed Umar of the Federal High Court, Abuja, ordered issued a bench warrant for the arrest Adeniyi Adeyemi, the controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), is currently in the custody police authorities.
Pictures and videos of embattled PFIPC boss being questioned in what appeared an interrogation session, surfaced on social media on Tuesday evening, with few details still sketchy on whether the police actually hunted him down or he surrendered himself.
Latest information, indicate that he is currently in the custody of the Osun State Police Command, according to a report by Channels Television, who confirmed that he has been taken in.
The order came on the prompting of Wisdom Madaki, the police lawyer after Adeyemi failed to appear in court to take his plea before on an eight-count charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/562/2025, which relates to forgery, fraud and impersonation.
The court took the decision despite the spirited efforts by Genesis Francis, Adeyemi’s lawyer to mitigate the situation when he told Umar: “The defendant is afraid for his life. He has to be alive to be able to face trial. They have been looking for him even without an order of court.”
Regardless, the judge, while brushing aside the defence, said he was minded to accede to the application for the issuance of a warrant of arrest against the defendant, noting since case was filed on November 27, 2025, with proceedings not commencing until December 4, 2025, Adeyemi did not appear before the court more than once.
“Since then, he has failed to appear before this court on four consecutive dates,” he said, while mandating security agencies to arrest and produce the embattled PFIPC boss before the court on September 30 for arraignment.
During trial, witnesses including Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff (CoS) to the President; Paul Emmanuel; Jeremiah Imoukhede; and Ituah Sylvester, are billed to testify for the prosecution alongside the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), Akimbo Shola and Adamu Balongu, as well as a Deputy Superintendent of Police.
The order is coming on the heels of Adeyemi’s outcry that his life was in danger, while debunking the allegation that he was a fugitive running away from the law, saying he would appear in court once he had assurance that he would be protected from those tracking him in attempts to take his life.
A guest of Politics Today, a public affairs programme on Channels Television, Adeyemi, had told his host on Monday: “I’m ready to show my face. I’m not hiding. I’m only fearing for my life because I have it on good authority that my life is in danger. There have been several attempts on my life,” Adeyemi added.
He also maintained his allegation that he paid N400 million through a proxy to President Tinubu’s Chief of Staff, Gbajabiamila, to secure his appointment as DG of the disputed council. I’m ready to show my face. I’m not hiding. I’m only fearing for my life because I have it on good authority that my life is in danger. There have been several attempts on my life.”
An interim police investigation report had exposed how the defendant allegedly forged appointment letters and official documents to create the impression that the PFIPC was a legitimate federal government agency.
Police disclosed that the investigation was initiated after the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President petitioned the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) on October 17, 2025, over the activities of individuals allegedly forging official appointment letters purportedly issued from the office.
The petition added that preliminary findings showed the forged documents contained falsified signatures, reference numbers, official seals, and the Nigerian Coat of Arms, and that they were allegedly used to appoint individuals into the non-existent PFIPC.
Adeyemi, who was identified as the principal suspect, allegedly presented himself as the DG of the council and operated from an office within the Federal Secretariat Complex, Phase III, Abuja.
One of those allegedly linked to the fraud, Dolapo Babatunde Tanimola, was said to have died in a fire incident at a hotel in Abuja.
Justice Mohammed Umar of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Tuesday, issued a bench warrant for the arrest of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director-General (DG) of an alleged “non-existent,” Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC).
The order came on the prompting of Wisdom Madaki, the police lawyer after Adeyemi failed to appear in court to take his plea before on an eight-count charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/562/2025, which relates to forgery, fraud and impersonation.
The court took the decision despite the spirited efforts by Genesis Francis, Adeyemi’s lawyer to mitigate the situation when he told Umar: “The defendant is afraid for his life. He has to be alive to be able to face trial. They have been looking for him even without an order of court.”
Regardless, the judge, while brushing aside the defence, said he was minded to accede to the application for the issuance of a warrant of arrest against the defendant, noting since case was filed on November 27, 2025, with proceedings not commencing until December 4, 2025, Adeyemi did not appear before the court more than once.
“Since then, he has failed to appear before this court on four consecutive dates,” he said, while mandating security agencies to arrest and produce the embattled PFIPC boss before the court on September 30 for arraignment.
During trial, witnesses including Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff (CoS) to the President; Paul Emmanuel; Jeremiah Imoukhede; and Ituah Sylvester, are billed to testify for the prosecution alongside the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), Akimbo Shola and Adamu Balongu, as well as a Deputy Superintendent of Police.
The order is coming on the heels of Adeyemi’s outcry that his life was in danger, while debunking the allegation that he was a fugitive running away from the law, saying he would appear in court once he had assurance that he would be protected from those tracking him in attempts to take his life.
A guest of Politics Today, a public affairs programme on Channels Television, Adeyemi, had told his host on Monday: “I’m ready to show my face. I’m not hiding. I’m only fearing for my life because I have it on good authority that my life is in danger. There have been several attempts on my life,” Adeyemi added.
He also maintained his allegation that he paid N400 million through a proxy to President Tinubu’s Chief of Staff, Gbajabiamila, to secure his appointment as DG of the disputed council. I’m ready to show my face. I’m not hiding. I’m only fearing for my life because I have it on good authority that my life is in danger. There have been several attempts on my life.”
An interim police investigation report had exposed how the defendant allegedly forged appointment letters and official documents to create the impression that the PFIPC was a legitimate federal government agency.
Police disclosed that the investigation was initiated after the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President petitioned the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) on October 17, 2025, over the activities of individuals allegedly forging official appointment letters purportedly issued from the office.
The petition added that preliminary findings showed the forged documents contained falsified signatures, reference numbers, official seals, and the Nigerian Coat of Arms, and that they were allegedly used to appoint individuals into the non-existent PFIPC.
Adeyemi, who was identified as the principal suspect, allegedly presented himself as the DG of the council and operated from an office within the Federal Secretariat Complex, Phase III, Abuja.
One of those allegedly linked to the fraud, Dolapo Babatunde Tanimola, was said to have died in a fire incident at a hotel in Abuja.
Meanwhile, Adeyemi, who has since denied that the PFIPC was non-existent, demanded an independent, multi-stakeholder investigative panel to probe the controversy surrounding the alleged N1.3 billion budget insertion for the Council in the 2026 Appropriation Bill.
In an open letter to President Tinubu, Adeyemi said he was prepared to provide documentary evidence and fully cooperate with investigators once an independent panel was constituted.
He recommended the inclusion of representatives of civil society organisations, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), independent media organisations, international financial institutions, human rights groups, and diplomatic missions, as well as the ICPC and the EFCC, on the independent investigative panel.
Meanwhile, Adeyemi, who has since denied that the PFIPC was non-existent, demanded an independent, multi-stakeholder investigative panel to probe the controversy surrounding the alleged N1.3 billion budget insertion for the Council in the 2026 Appropriation Bill.
In an open letter to President Tinubu, Adeyemi said he was prepared to provide documentary evidence and fully cooperate with investigators once an independent panel was constituted.
He recommended the inclusion of representatives of civil society organisations, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), independent media organisations, international financial institutions, human rights groups, and diplomatic missions, as well as the ICPC and the EFCC, on the independent investigative panel.
Abdulrahman Bello, must die for the murder, Hafsoh Yetunde Lawal, a final-year student of the Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin, the Court of Appeal has insisted, rebuffing the attempt of the self-acclaimed Islamic cleric, to upturn the verdict of an Ilorin High Court.
Affirming the earlier death sentence imposed on cleric for the murder of the female student, said to be his lover, on February 10, 2025, at the Olunlade area of Ilorin, which attracted widespread public outrage across Kwara State and beyond, the appellate court said it found no reason to upturn the earlier verdict of the lower court.
Bello, who was one of the five people arraigned on charges bordering on conspiracy, murder, unlawful removal and possession of human parts and blood, also faced a rape charge, of which he was eventually acquitted by the trial court.
Justice Gabriel Omoniyi Kolawole, who led a three-man panel of the appellate court, while dismissing his appeal, held that the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that he murdered the victim and was unlawfully in possession of human parts.
The appellate court consequently upheld the judgment of the Kwara State High Court, which sentenced Bello to death by hanging and imposed an additional 10-year jail term over his conviction for unlawful possession of human parts.
The court held that there was no merit in the appeal and consequently affirmed both the conviction and the sentence imposed by the trial court.
According to the appellate court, the trial court properly evaluated the evidence before it and rightly concluded that the prosecution established the offences beyond reasonable doubt.
The appellate court said it believed the position of Ibrahim Sulyman, Kwara State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Issa Zakari, Chief State Counsel, and B.L. Abdulsalam, Assistant Chief State Counsel, who led the prosecution.
Hailing the judgment as another significant milestone in the state’s criminal justice administration, Sulyman, said in a statement: “The judgment underscores the commitment of the Kwara State Ministry of Justice and the judiciary to ensuring that criminal cases are determined strictly in accordance with the law and the evidence presented before the courts.
“It also reaffirms the principle that persons found guilty of grave offences, after a fair trial, will be held accountable under the law. The appellate court’s decision would strengthen public confidence in the justice system.
“The affirmation of the conviction and sentence represents another milestone in the administration of criminal justice and reinforces public confidence in the rule of law and the appellate process. The convict still retains any further rights of appeal available to him under the Constitution and other applicable laws.
Justice Hannah Ajayi of the Kwara State High Court, sitting at Ilorin, hand on July 2025 sentenced Bello to death after finding him guilty of murdering and dismembering Lawal, after describing his act as “the highest degree of human wickedness, and a premeditated and cold-blooded act.”
Dismissing Bello’s claims that he loved the deceased and intended to marry her as merely an afterthought designed to deceive the court, Ajayi, also ruled the convict’s conduct after committing the crime and before his arrest suggested that it might not have been his first involvement in such an act, while a book on money-making charms recovered from his apartment further strengthened the prosecution’s case.
Justice Ajayi further held that the video and written confessional statements obtained by operatives of the Department of State Services and the police were lawfully admitted in evidence, dismissing Bello’s allegation that he was tortured into making the confessions.
While acquitting Bello of the rape charge, the trial court convicted him of murder and unlawful possession of human parts, sentencing him to death by hanging for the murder and imposing a 10-year prison term, with an option of a N100,000 fine, for the human parts offence.
The court also discharged and acquitted the four other defendants in the case — Ahmed Abdulwasiu, Suleiman Muhydeen, Jamiu Uthman and Abdulrahman Jamiu — after holding that the prosecution failed to establish their involvement in the offences.
Reacting to the High Court judgment at the time, the Emir of Ilorin and Chairman of the Kwara State Traditional Rulers Council, Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, described the killing as tragic and commended the judiciary for ensuring justice.
“The gruesome murder of Hafsoh Yetunde Lawal was pathetic, unfortunate, regrettable and worrisome,” the monarch said in a statement issued by his Press Secretary, Abdulazeez Arowona.
“The judgment has further brightened the hope and trust of the people in the judiciary and security agencies. May Almighty Allah repose the soul of the late Hafsoh Lawal and comfort her family members.”
The monarch also urged parents and guardians to be vigilant and closely monitor the activities and movements of their children and wards to prevent a recurrence of such incidents.
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